A shoe shape which fits the feet of a customer has been heretofore selected by looking up a chart such as the JIS chart shown in FIG. 10 with measurement values of foot length, foot girth and the like. There have been proposed several methods for selecting a shoe shape based on measurements of various parts of feet. One example is such that foot length, foot width, plantar arch and foot curvatures (the curvatures of the medial and side edges of a foot relative to the base point of the heel) are first measured, and then, a shoe shape is determined based on the measurement values (see Japanese Patent Publication No. 3041039). Apart from this, there have been proposed several methods of determining a shoe shape which fits a customer by use of foot measurement data (see, for example, Japanese Patent Publications Nos. 3041038, 3025530; Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Applications No. H11-282869, H10-260722).
However, it was found to be difficult to select a shoe shape which provides satisfactory foot comfort to the customer by measurements of foot length, foot girth and the conventional parameters (foot curvatures etc.). Therefore, customers, in fact, used to test-fit shoes of several types to select one shoe shape therefrom. However, such test-fitting is difficult for customers who purchase footwear, for instance, via mail order.